Beware ‘Tweet Risk’: Trump Could Attack Fed As Mnuchin Testifies, Analyst Warns

Just in case this needed to get any funnier, Steve Mnuchin is going to be testifying before the House Financial Services Committee this morning.

And guess what he’s going to be talking about? Here, look:

That’s obviously hilarious because after all, we’re talking about the same Steve Mnuchin who just two weeks ago showed up in Davos, stepped off the plane, and immediately plunged the world into a “hot” currency war with ill-advised (and extraordinarily reckless under the circumstances – i.e. less than 48 hours after Trump started a residential washing machine war with the Koreans) comment about a weak dollar being good for U.S. trade.

Of course today he’s likely to get questions about the ongoing stock market crash and as Cowen’s Jaret Seiberg writes in an overnight note, that means we’re all subject to Trump “tweet risk.”

Seiberg says Mnuchin probably wants to “deliver a reassuring and positive message” after fucking up in Davos, but Democrats will likely “be on the war path” which means Trump could “fire back, possibly by attacking the Fed, which may sow doubt about the independence of regulatory agencies.”

So that should be all kinds of amusing if it plays out. As noted on Monday, the White House is “concerned” about the market and with good reason: it’s one of the only things that’s going right for Trump.

“Washington’s initial reaction to stock market decline was muted as members of Congress returned from their home districts and regulators were largely out of the spotlight; that changes today with Mnuchin’s testimony,” Seiberg goes on to say.

Oh, and on top of that, we’ll get the SEC’s Jay Clayton and CFTC’s Giancarlo testifying on cryptocurrencies (full prepared remarks can be found here) at a time when Bitcoin is crashing.

On the bright side, Cowen says the “market turmoil may reduce the risk of government shutdown on and speed negotiations to raise debt ceiling.”

So you know, look at the bright side.